Editor's Picks: The meaning of mountains

The Geographical Podcast

In this episode of The Geographical Podcast, we read out articles from our print magazine or website.

This week, we head into the mountains with Dawn Hollis, a historian at St Andrews University, whose research focuses on the history of mountains and mountain-climbing. For many hillwalkers and mountaineers, mountains are something to be conquered – but it hasn’t always been this way. As famous peaks such as Everest become increasingly, and dangerously, crowded, Hollis wonders whether there are better ways to appreciate our highlands.

Also in this episode, we hear how the Iberian lynx, once one of the world’s rarest cats, has made such a remarkable recovery that it’s no longer considered endangered, and we find out what it's like to live and work in some of the world's most inhospitable environments.